Photograph by: Handout photo
, Vancouver Sun

What new plants are you going to add to your garden this spring?

It's common for gardeners to look for new and exciting plants every year. And the horticultural industry always obliges by producing some, although not all of them are always the winners they are made out to be.

This year, however, there are some crackers that you will want to have in your scopes.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Vanilla Strawberry' is one. It is creating quite a stir, mostly from being featured in glossy home-and-garden-type magazines, because of its strawberry pink flowers with creamy (vanilla) white tips. This is a hardy shrub that grows to about 1.8 m (six feet) and flowers from midsummer through to fall.

Hydrangeas are increasingly popular, especially the new Double Delight line developed by Ball Horticultural in Chicago. This series contains such attractive cultivars as 'Wedding Gown', an early blooming lacecap-type with white densely-petalled flowers.

There are also mophead-type hydrangeas in this collection, such as 'Expression' and 'Freedom', that are considered "re-blooming" because they produce flowers in summer and again in fall, having the ability to bloom on both old and new growth.

Another new introduction from Ball is a super-hardy, compact weigela called 'Merlot Pink' that has rosepink flowers. It is low-growing, reaching 60 to 90 cm (two to three feet) by a little wider.

'My Monet Sunset' is another very good weigela with gold-red foliage and pink flowers. Like 'Merlot Pink', it is also able to survive in gardens where temperatures dip well below zero.

Among buddleias, there is a line called Flutterby Petite that has caused quite a stir because the four cultivars in the series are all non-invasive and cold-hardy to Zone 5 (-29 C).

But the variety many gardeners are falling in love with is 'Blue Heaven,' which is "ultracompact" growing only 1.2 m (four feet) high and blooming virtually non-stop.

One plant that I had fun growing last year that will be more widely available this spring is Salvia 'Juicy Fruit', a lovely container plant for adding chartreuse foliage as an accent. This is being grown exclusively by Alfred Kwan at Western Independent Greenhouses (WIG) in Burnaby.

Brian Minter, owner of Minter Country Gardens in Chilliwack, is a nurseryman after my own heart who always has his finger on the pulse of gardening trends, especially new, quality plant introductions.

This year, he is also smitten with Hydrangea 'Vanilla Strawberry', but also highly rates a few other interesting shrubs, such as Physocarpus 'Amber Jubilee', a new form of ninebark.

"The new growth takes on shades of yellow-orange, maturing to lime green, then purple in the fall," Minter says.

In the small tree category, he loves Cercis 'The Rising Sun' because of its "amazing foliage," which starts out a shade of rosy-apricot and eventually changes into golden-tangerine by summer.

And for a sweet treat, he reckons strawberries 'Berries Galore' and 'Berri Basket' are the tops.

Heritage Perennials in Abbotsford always has new offerings for spring.

This year, John Schroeder has again produced his list of 10 favourites, which includes some fabulous flowering plants, such as the orange/ purple bi-coloured ice plant called 'Fire Spinner' and the first compact floriferous dwarf double echinacea called 'Piccolino'.

His list of star performers also features a blue clematis called 'Bijou,' developed by Raymond, that only grows 30 cm high, making it virtually a ground cover; Rudbeckia 'Little Star,' considered an improved, more compact version of the classics 'Goldsturm,' and Gaillardia 'Moxie,' a sure winner with its bright ruffled yellow flowers.

For those looking for a dramatic accent plant, there's Hosta 'Empress Wu,' which grows into a giant lush mound at least four feet high. This is not one for small-space gardens.

Itoh peonies have been around for at least a decade, but Schroeder says the cultivar 'Lollipop' with its pink bicolour flowers has generally been so rare that it was out of most people's budget.

"This is the first year this outstanding plant is available at a price that everyone can afford," he says.

"It has enormous, lightly fragrant flowers that hold up to wind and rain and contain magnificent colours not previously seen in garden peonies."

Completing his list of favourites are Helleborus nigercors 'Honeyhill Joy,' noted for its "exceptionally strong, clean, weather-resistant foliage'; Heuchera 'Spellbound,' a perfect purple foliage plant for containers; and Iberis sempervirens 'Masterpiece,' a large-flowered white candytuft that thrives in sun or partial shade in the garden or in a container.

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